The present invention relates to protective gear, and more particularly to an arm guard.
Protective gear is used to protect its wearer from injury or from experiencing an impact due to applied forces. The popularity of physical sports has increased the need for personal protective padding. Sporting activities, such as hockey, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, biking, motorcycling and occupational activities all can lead to falls, collisions and impacts, which can cause pain, injury and damage to unprotected parts of a person's body. Protective gear can be worn to counter these effects. For example, in the field of lacrosse, players use lacrosse sticks to pass and shoot a lacrosse ball at significant speeds. Lacrosse players also are subject to checking, which can be somewhat violent, and can involve impacts to various body parts. Further, many times, lacrosse players are subject to blows from the lacrosse sticks of opponents. Accordingly, lacrosse players typically wear protective gear.
One type of protective gear is the arm guard. Typically, an arm guard for lacrosse play includes three parts: a forearm pad, a biceps pad and an elbow pad disposed between and connecting the biceps pad and the forearm pad. The biceps pad and the forearm pad are sewn to one another or the elbow pad at their ends adjacent the elbow of a wearer. While this closes the area at the elbow joint that otherwise might be exposed along the wearer's arm, it can be uncomfortable and can impede motion of the wearer's arm, and in particular, radioulnar rotation. The three generally, rigidly attached arm pads of a typical lacrosse arm guard also can impair the flexion of the arm at the elbow joint.
In most lacrosse arm guards, the elbow pad is placed exterior relative to the biceps pad. In turn, this creates a small projecting ledge at the upper edge of the elbow pad along the wearer's arm. Thus, when an opponent engages the wearer with a downward stroked lacrosse stick, the stick engages the ledge and elbow pad, and can tug the arm pad down the wearer's arm. This can impart more of the force from the blow to the wearer's arm as it is translated to the ledge and elbow pad.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the field of protective gear, particularly with regard to arm guards and similar appendage protective devices.